With the advent of unified communications (UC), servers have been developed that integrate different forms of communication services, such as wireline telephony, cellular telephony, e-mail, instant messaging, voicemail, video conferencing, etc. For example, a unified communications server allows a user to transmit a message to a recipient through an e-mail, where the recipient receives the message over a cellular telephone. In another example, a unified communications server allows the initiation and support of a video conference using instant messaging.
Despite these advances, unified communications servers or any other suitable servers are unable to provide users with control over these services, without the use of dedicated appliances or tools, such as remote controls or keypads, or by connecting to the service's web interface over an Internet Protocol (IP) communications network or any other suitable communications network. For example, to configure and/or control a conference, a user using an external computer (which may be running call control software) can access the unified communications server by logging in and entering a password at a web interface.
In addition to the limitation described above, unified communications servers are also unable to provide personal data to a participant that is sharing a communications terminal with other participants. For example, a party sitting in a conference room that is sharing a video conferencing room system might be interested in communicating over a chat channel to another party in the conference from his or her mobile device.
Even further, although mobile devices, such as personal digital assistants (PDAs), cellular telephones, portable media players, and other devices can be used as endpoints in a conference, actual fixed-to-mobile convergence is not yet available. That is, a participant in a conference wishing to conference his or her mobile device cannot seamlessly do so without knowing the conference details or accessing the service operational interface. Typically, a user either accesses the web interface of the service and dials his or her mobile device access number or uses dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) signals and/or similar approaches to remotely instruct the server to invite the mobile device. Alternatively, the user can also choose to dial in to the conference provided he or she is aware of the conference details, such as, for example, the conference access number, the conference number, a personal identification number (PIN), etc.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide systems, methods, and media for identifying and associating user devices with media cues that overcome these and other deficiencies of the prior art.